Momentum Quarterly (alternatively: Momentum Quarterly - Journal for Societal Progress) is a transdisciplinary scientific journal, aiming to improve the discursive and thematic connection between research and politics. Further information about the journal can be found here.
innsbruck university press, Universität Innsbuck
Copyright (c) 2026 Quirin Dammerer, Steffen Bettin, Leonhard Dobusch, Astrid Mager, Stefanie Wöhl https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Processes of Differentiation in Vocational and Grammar School Education: Institutional Frameworks and Teacher Perspectives
Social selectivity shapes the attainment of educational qualifications within the Swiss education system. Educational opportunities for children and adolescents from different social backgrounds remain unequally distributed. Educational success is also influenced by various axes of inequality and difference, such as social and geographical background, migration history, and gender. This paper presents initial findings from the research project «Migration and Social Conditions in the Context of Vocational and Upper Secondary Education». Drawing on postcolonial theoretical approaches, the study investigates how young people in vocational and upper secondary education pathways are positioned as «Others» through processes of othering and boundary-making related to migration and gender, and how these dynamics may reproduce or shift existing asymmetrical social relations.
Copyright (c) 2026 Maritza Le Breton, Susanne Burren, Kyra Lenting, Daniel Nacht https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Transdisciplinary Impact Assessment in the Arts and Culture Sector: A Key to Strategic and Operational Development
The discourse surrounding impact research in the publicly funded arts and culture sector fluctuates between the legitimisation and criticism of instrumentalisation. When impact analyses are viewed as an integral component of a cultural production ecosystem, it emphasises the interdependent relationship between funding recipients and providers, necessitating collaboration. The potential of impact analyses for organisational and cultural policy governance is realised primarily in collaborative processes. The essay uses the example of an impact analysis conducted by the authors with an Austrian film festival to reflect on the importance of collaborative governance and transdisciplinary methodology for consensual dynamics. The essay provides a methodological impetus for impact analysis, advocating an awareness of the transformative power of impact research within the Austrian arts and culture sector.
Copyright (c) 2026 Verena Teissl, Stefan Schöggl, Tanja C. Krainhöfer, Yvonne Unnold https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Air Pollution Problems in Mongolia – Analysing Frames and Dominant Speakers in the Media Coverage
As air pollution increases, the problem is widely discussed in science, politics, and the media. Media coverage both reflects and influences political agenda-setting on air pollution. Yet little is known about how air pollution is represented in the media of highly vulnerable countries. To address this gap, this study examines how air pollution is portrayed in the Mongolian mass media, one of the world’s most polluted contexts. Drawing on a systematic analysis of 170 newspaper articles, the study identifies dominant causal and solution-responsibility frames. The findings show that Mongolian newspapers emphasize individual responsibility for adapting to air pollution, while international coverage in The Guardian highlights collective solutions and political responsibility. Overall, the analysis indicates that politicians—who dominate Mongolian media coverage—tend to marginalize scientific expertise and prioritize short-term, individual-level responses.
Copyright (c) 2026 Mungunchimeg Batkhuyag, Ulrike Zeigermann, Michael Böcher https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
"If you work like this again, you're out" - Precarization of Migrant Workers in the Context of E-Commerce's Fragmented Employment and Digital Surveillance
This article is based on ethnographic research and interviews with workers in manual jobs in e-commerce. First, the labour process in a distribution center is described and management practices are analyzed. The work consists of a series of micro tasks. Some workers in parcel logistics perform simple structured activities, for example on an assembly line, while others are guided by digital devices that monitor their work performance. This coexistence of diverse guidance systems differentiates the results of previous research in this area. With performance recorded, management pushes workers to work faster by threatening dismissal or offering the prospect of permanent employment. Workers in the industry are predominantly migrants and affected by multiple forms of precariousness. In the context of fragmented employment, this precariousness is exploited to push workers to work faster. The results show that the precarious working conditions in the industry exacerbate the multiple precariousness of migrant workers and therefore negatively.
Copyright (c) 2026 Lukas Stani https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
“I would have liked to but...” - Obstacles to taking paternity leave
Despite a continuous expansion of legal options, the take-up of paternity leave in Austria is still low and has recently even declined. This article examines the motives of fathers for (not) taking parental leave based on 37 guided interviews. The results show that the motives for or against paternity leave differ both between fathers who have not taken paternity leave, who have taken short or longer periods of leave, and to some extent within the respective types. In the case of fathers who have not taken parental leave and fathers who have only taken the part of parental leave reserved exclusively for them, the decision is often based on a combination of several hindering factors. Fathers who were on parental leave for longer than two months opted for this type of leave either for pragmatic reasons or because of their personal convictions. Traditional role models continue to shape the attitudes and further the behaviour of the vast majority of fathers.
Copyright (c) 2026 Julia Hofbauer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Identifying needs for participation and empowerment resulting from industrial transformation projects ahead oftime: method development
The industrial transition toward greenhouse gas neutrality is a complex process that entails significant changes for society. This paper addresses issues of acceptance at the local level. It presents a systematic approach that aims to identify conflict potentials as well as local participation and empowerment needs in the context of the industrial transformation toward climate neutrality at an early stage. Furthermore, it aims to elaborate the characteristics of successful participation. The approach describes an iterative process whose core element consists of interviews with organized civil society actors within the spatial or thematic sphere of the transformation projects. The approach was tested and validated using the example of the planned CO₂ pipeline (North Sea CO₂ Corridor) by Open Grid Europe through the Rhenish lignite mining area. In addition to presenting the approach, this paper also presents the results of the validation process and the identified characteristics of successful participation.
Copyright (c) 2026 Lisa Kolde, Nora Weber, Christoph Zeiss, Silvia Voigt, Lea Pattberg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
"Our tears are not for sale!" Decolonizing the hegemonic order of knowledge on racism
Drawing on a postcolonial critique of historical and contemporary forms of the hegemonic order of knowledge, this article aims to foreground an intersectional oriented decolonial practice in research on racism in Germany. In this context, it brings the concept of intersectionality into dialogue with decolonial perspectives on racism and pleads for creating a cross-community practice of resistance and solidarity between the various discriminated groups in the dominant society. This article argues that research on racism in Germany can benefit from intersectional oriented decolonial knowledge production. An intersectional perspective aims to produce critical, resistant and decolonial knowledge on racism.
Copyright (c) 2025 Robel Afeworki Abay https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The regional groups Fridays for Future Berlin and Budapest – The influence of regime quality on the collective action
As an important social movement in the fight against climate change, Fridays for Future (FFF) is characterised by the methods of collective action, as in addition to traditional mobilisation mechanisms (such as strikes), the movement also resorts to unusual instruments (such as flash mobs), whereby their use differs depending on the regional context. Based on seven theoretically motivated guided interviews with activists from two European regional groups – Berlin and Budapest – the question of which contexts influence the actions of FFF is investigated. Based on the interview data the divergent internal and external actions of the two regional groups can be attributed to the regime quality: FFF-Berlin can act through mechanisms of the political system due to the distinct quality of democracy in Germany. FFF-Budapest on the other hand generates influence primarily on an individual level due to the restrictions in the political system in Hungary in order to bring about ‘bottom-up’ change.
Copyright (c) 2025 Katharina Lebok https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The economy for the common good as an alternative economic model for a more sustainable and fair future? Ananalysis of the implementation in the Bavarian towns Kirchanschöring and Postbauer-Hengn
In 2010, the Austrian activist Christian Felber published his concept of an economic order geared towards the common good. In Bavaria, the municipalities of Kirchanschöring and Postbauer-Heng published a common good balance sheet based on Felber’s suggestion. In this research work, the certification process in Kirchanschöring and Postbauer-Heng was examined based on the policy cycle (political science phase modell for the analysis of political processes) regarding their implementation strategies. Furthermore, the success of the respective processes was evaluated. It was found that the processes involved in preparing the balance sheet in Kirchanschöring and Postbauer-Heng are mostly similar. The inclusion of the political level in the respective implementation phases was identified as a central difference. In both communities, obstacles on the way to certification were overcome and follow-up measures were initiated, which is why both projects can be viewed as successes.
Copyright (c) 2025 Maximilian Kroemer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
For the „high performers“ and „us Austrians“: A media discourse analysis of social policy reforms of the ÖVP/FPÖ government 2017-2019 in Austria
When inaugurated in December 2017, the ÖVP/FPÖ coalition in Austria presented far-reaching plans for reforming social policies and the labour market in its government programme. While many of these plans failed due to the early collapse of the coalition in May 2019 others have been adopted. This article will focus on two of these reforms, namely regarding working hours policy and social assistance policy. More precisely, we ask in a comparative perspective on policies which discursive frames or frames of interpretation played a role in media discussions about the reforms mentioned. We examine the media discussions on the basis of three Austrian daily newspapers and with the help of a specific discourse-analytical approach. This suggests that the discursive framing in the two policy fields is characterized by far-reaching differences. We interpret these differences against the background of debates in political science regarding the social and labour market policy profile of so-called Populist Radical Right Parties when entering a coalition with conservative parties.
Copyright (c) 2024 Markus Griesser, Karl Beyer, Stephan Pühringer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Fossil Hegemony - About the Relationship betwen Analysis and Strategy in the Climate Movement
The strategies of many contemporary radical socio-ecological movements bear witness to an incomplete analysis of fossil capitalism. Therefore, in a first part, we argue for a more complex understanding of fossil capitalist hegemony that takes into account the materiality and everyday sense in capitalism. Here, we are especially referring to Nancy Fraser’s theory of cannibalistic capitalism and Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen’s concept of the ‘imperial way of life’. Against this background, in a second step we show the truncated analysis and its reflection in the strategy of two heuristic groups of actors – the left-liberal and anti-capitalist-revolutionary groups of actors. Finally, we draw first conclusions for a more comprehensive radical, climate-political strategy.
Copyright (c) 2024 Leon Switala, Caesar Anderegg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Copyright (c) 2024 Quirin Dammerer, Leonhard Dobusch, Lukas Lehner, Astrid Mager, Stefanie Wöhl https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Re-Embedding Finance: Democratic Funds as a Lever for a Sustainable and Solidary Economy
Democratic Funds offer an institutional model to integrate non-pecuniary returns—such as ecological sustainability, social cohesion, or cultural value—into investment decisions. They respond to structural market failure and open new paths to democratize capital allocation. Through a token-based system, citizens gain equal rights to influence public investments. This article develops a design combining elements of sovereign wealth funds, crowdfunding, and liquid democracy. Democratic Funds enable value-based and participatory governance of economic resources, fostering social inclusion, macroeconomic stability, and socio-ecological transformation.
Copyright (c) 2025 Mads R. Hansen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
„Keinen Millimeter nach rechts” – Herbert Grönemeyer and Germany’s Free Democratic Basic Order
The article analyses the socio-political motifs in the song lyrics of the German popular musician Herbert Grönemeyer from a political science perspective. As a qualitative content analysis of his song lyrics shows, Grönemeyer pictures the fundamental pillars of Germany’s free democratic order – human dignity, the democracy principle and the rule of law – as normative ideals worthy of protection, while he explicitly names opposing actors and tendencies as dangers. The overall picture shows that Herbert Grönemeyer not only expresses this political stance in his song lyrics, but also continuously intervenes in civil society as a public intellectual in the sense of Antonio Gramsci. In this way, he actively participates in the struggle for public opinion and ultimately helps to secure the hegemony of the free democratic basic order.
Copyright (c) 2025 Niklas Ferch https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A racism-critical look at language-related discrimination in access to welfare state benefits and the labor market
From a racism-critical perspective, this article addresses the question of how social inequalities are (re)produced through language-related practices. Using results from three empirical research projects, we show how linguistic and racist discrimination are intertwined when it comes to accessing welfare state benefits and the labor market. Our data demonstrates how exclusion processes occur in both fields through linguistic practices. Despite the empirical entanglement of linguicism and racism, we also argue in favor of paying attention to differences between these two types of discrimination in order not to lose sight of linguistic discrimination beyond racism on the one hand and to recognize the masking of racism through linguistic discrimination on the other.
Copyright (c) 2024 Clara Holzinger, Anna-Katharina Draxl https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Pay inequalities regarding nationality and gender using the example of social work and related professions
The article deals with wage inequality in the so-called care economy in Germany. This includes, among others, the fields of (dental) doctors, social workers and educators as part of the helping professions. The occupational designations are based on the designations from the quantitative material. These traditionally consist of a high proportion of women. Men and non-Germans are underrepresented. The focus is on social work, the other professions are chosen from a contrasting and complementary perspective and are within the spectrum of helping professions as (non-)academic professions. The central research question is the extent to which gender-specific pay inequality is evident here and how this is related to nationality. The data comes from a mix of methods. Categories of social stratification such as gender, class and ethnicity are not used singularly or additively, but are analyzed in their interconnectedness. To this end, the material is supplemented qualitatively, as the quantitative material unfortunately does not allow differentiation according to ethnicity or class. It can be stated that intersectionality is discussed here as a connection between gender and nationality on the basis of the available material.
Copyright (c) 2024 Simone Mazari https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Urban protests. A counter-hegemonic intervention in the neoliberal city?
This article presents the results of the Hamburg 'Right to the City' movement, which was analysed applying he hegemony discourse analysis of the Essex School (1991) against a radical democratic background. With the intention of revealing its programmatic structure and determining discursive identity in the political space, whereby a selected text corpus of the movement from the period 2017–2021 was analysed. This made it possible to determine the identity and its arrangement in the political space. Within the discourse, numerous demands are articulated that aim to deepen democratic rights and give citizens the power to act in the form of collective self-organisation. The objective is to convey the questions of how the Hamburg ‘Right to the City’ movement challenges the current order of neoliberal urban planning and constitutes a counter-design to the established hegemonic order through its programmatic profile. Based on the articulation of various radical democratic and urban political demands, alternative models in the field of urban planning are demonstrated. With the goal to establish a just city and to move closer to the right to the city for all.
Copyright (c) 2025 Petra Kolb https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Role of Blockchain Technologies in Transforming Supply Chains Toward Social and Environmental Sustainability
Supply chains are complex networks of actors involved in the production and delivery of goods to a final consumer. The complexity of these networks contributes to the obscurity of practices along supply chains, fostering labor and human rights violations, as well as environmentally damaging practices, throughout the entire production process. Academic and business organizations are increasingly showing interest in the use of blockchain technologies to track and trace practices and inputs at all intermediate steps. This paper provides an overview of the potential of blockchain applications in supply chains and analyzes how they can help a transformation toward social and environmental sustainability. To approach the research goal, academic and gray literary sources were synthesized. This paper finds that blockchain technologies can support supply chain networks in their quest to foster sustainable production practices. Yet, there are also limitations to be considered before introducing blockchain to a product’s supply chain.
Copyright (c) 2023 Nina Schulze https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Insolvency trends and the economy before the outbreak of the pandemic
In the years leading up to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, both in Austria and internationally, a continuous decline in corporate insolvencies could be observed across different economic phases. This empirical development seems to contradict the previous theoretical assumption of an anticyclical response of insolvency figures to cyclical impulses. This raises the question of whether the development of insolvencies had already decoupled from economic growth before the outbreak of the pandemic and whether alternative factors such as the low interest rate policy or the emergence of "zombie companies" have a decisive influence. Using time-series analysis methods, we find no empirical evidence of a decoupling of insolvencies and insolvency contingency development for Austria until the outbreak of the pandemic. Insolvency contingency cases and payments continue to react anticyclically, i.e. they tend to fall during economic upturns and rise during economic downturns.
Copyright (c) 2024 Richard Fuchsbichler, Luděk Kouba https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Extremism prevention and political ”Bildung” On the increase in extremism-preventive approaches and their effects on political „Bildung”
Since the mid-2010s, there have been increasing efforts in Austria to counter developments that have been identified as radical or extremist by means of extremism prevention. Political „Bildung” seems to be losing importance in this field. The central thesis of this article is that a creeping marginalisation of „Bildung” is taking place due to an increase in preventive approaches. What is the reason for this and what effects does the increase in extremism-preventive approaches have on political „Bildung”? One possible answer is sought in the action logical differences between prevention and (political) „Bildung”.
Copyright (c) 2023 Martin Haselwanter http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Industrial Policy as an Elite Conflict. Big Tech Versus ‚Industrie 4.0‘?
This contribution demonstrates that the current renaissance of industrial policy in German political discourse is to be understood against the backdrop of unfolding elite conflicts. These conflicts emerge due to the dynamization of the political economy in digital capitalism, whose proprietary logic diffuses into wider parts of the economy. In this context, established companies form industrial-policy alliances, which are backed by the state. In this article, such collaborative efforts are not understood as purely defensive measures by otherwise helpless German industrial companies. Rather, they are scrutinized for their penetration by power interests. In projects such as 'Industry 4.0', established patterns of corporatist cooperation are called upon to create legitimacy for industrial policy support. However, this is in tension with the orientation of German companies' strategies toward globalized markets, which until a few years ago was predominantly accompanied by the demand for neo-liberal deregulation.
Copyright (c) 2023 Lion Hubrich http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The imperial way of life in school education: an investigation into the design and adaptation of the German state of Hesse curricula in the subject of politics/economics
School education socialises us from an early age thus shaping our ideas about the world. This paper uses the dualistic conception of different ways of life according to Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen as the basis for an exemplary analysis of existing curricula in the subject of politics/economics in the German state of Hesse. For this purpose, I describe the current „imperial way of life“ according to Brand and Wissen as a definition of the consequences of our current externalisation society and the „solidary way of life“ as the counter-conception necessary for a transformation. Against the background of this description, I examine sections of recent curricula for the subject politics/ economics in exemplary fashion. In doing so, I find that especially in formal education, an imperial way of life tends to be reproduced and consolidated. However, the comparison of the 2002 curriculum with the 2016 core curriculum also shows that aspects of a „solidary way of life“ are now increasingly being addressed. In order to be able to push this even further, I briefly explain in the conclusion the possibility of strengthening this trend through Education for Sustainable Development.
Copyright (c) 2023 Tom Zimmermann http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Ideological Foundations of Universal and Exclusive Solidarity in Austria
Solidarity is a term and concept many appeal to, especially during crises. It also enjoys a long tradition within social sciences but nevertheless remains a rather ambiguous term with many open questions attached. Based on theoretical literature, this article introduces a multidimensional empirical concept of solidarity by combining opinions regarding global, institutional, group-oriented, and supportive dimensions of solidarity, or a lack thereof. This allows for differentiation between two publicly and politically discussed and contested types of solidarity: universal and exclusive solidarity. The article then further addresses what influences the Austrian (survey) population’s preferences regarding these types of solidarities, with a focus on ideologies. This is empirically tested via survey data and multiple linear regression models. This approach allows for closing an existing gap between the theoretical and empirical literature and for more thoroughly examining the relation between solidarity and the perception of groupings and belongings. The latter is necessary to contrast the different types of solidarity.
Copyright (c) 2023 Andreas Schadauer, Jörg Flecker http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Sustainable Work in Europe: socio-ecological transformation of work and impacts from the pandemic
In the COVID-19-pandemic, the state and its institutions have demonstrated an enormous capacity to act. Within a few days and with shortened the usual consultation procedures, the consequences of the crisis for the health of citizens and the lockdown for companies, employees and regions were absorbed. In addition to the health care sector, the labour market in particular was marked by upheavals due to temporary plant closures. This was reacted to with the mass use of short-time working allowance. The German Public Employment Service proved to be an agile actor in the crisis by coping with the proverbial explosion of short-time working allowance applications to unprecedented heights and thus contributing to social peace. Against this background, the article asks what lessons can be drawn from this for a (plannable) socio-ecological restructuring. This will be linked to the heterogeneous and partly restrained perspectives on sustainable work in European countries and developed into a proposal for a modified transfer short time working allowance as an instrument of just transition. This proposal is to be embedded in further socio-political reforms to protect the self-employed, for example; the pandemic has also revealed this necessity.
Copyright (c) 2023 Sebastian Brandl, Ingo Matuschek http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The gendered division of labour in the Corona-Crisis: a backlash? What is addressed in the discursive coalition between politics and the social sciences, and what remains concealed
As a consequence of the lockdown measures to contain the COVID-19 Pandemic in Austria, 2020 saw the dawn of a novel public awareness regarding the family as the producer of “system-relevant services”. Social sciences and news media prominently and critically discussed the contradiction between the necessity of “privately” performed, gendered reproductive work and its simultaneous low social valuation and invisibility in broader public life. This paper traces the “career” of the sociological concept of “traditional gender roles” in Austrian public debates during the pandemic. In doing so, it reconstructs the process by which the potential field of conflict, stemming from the measures taken in response to the pandemic on the one side, and the resulting, empirically documented excessive strain for families on the other, was discursively neutralized by adapting and appropriating its critical content to suit coping strategies conducive to individualism and capitalism. Drawing from feminist economics and critique of ideology, this paper reconstructs the mode by which prevailing myths become entrenched under conditions of crises and explores the possible roles of sociological critique in this process.
Copyright (c) 2023 Brita Krucsay http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Intercultural dialogue on societal nature relations: How political ecology from China inspires the search for new practices of transformation
In the German-speaking discourse on socio-ecological transformation, the theory of societal nature relations has gained momentum as a problem diagnosis of multiple socio-ecological crises in the Anthropocene – for scientists as well as for activists. The subsequent question of practical alternatives led to the demand for a democratization of societal nature relations. However, satisfying answers as to what exactly this means for the organization of a transformation, are yet lacking. In response, this paper pursues an intercultural dialogue with Daoist philosophy and discusses to what extent domination-free, or an-archic, nature relations represent a possible practice of socio ecological transformations. The paper concludes that transformations could be organized with action-by-non-action (wu-wei) and explores what this possibly means in theory and practice.
Copyright (c) 2023 Daniel Buschmann http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Competition policy as countervailing power and monopoly power in global value chains
Global value chains (GVC) are a central element of capitalism in the epoch of hyperglobalisation. They are governed by lead firms from global economic centres, and suppliers in the global south produce and deliver goods and services according to their specifications. Benefits are, however, shared very unevenly along the GVC. One important reason for this is the unequal distribution of monopoly power between the different firms. The article discusses the means by which a reduction in these power imbalances could be accomplished. Using markup developments, profit rates and measures of industry concentration, it is demonstrated how lead firms in the global North have been able to expand their power in output markets and input markets at the expense of supplier firms in the global South. I argue that institutional and technological barriers to entry, for instance due to a rising importance of intangible assets, have helped to protect the dominant position of lead firms in GVC. The logical economic response would be the build up of a countervailing power in the global South. A critical evaluation of cartels, cooperatives, regional integration, and competition policy indicates their potential to reduce the exploitation of suppliers in the periphery yet any articulation and realization of an effective countervailing power is complex and unlikely to remain unchallenged by powerful lead firms and the governments of their home countries.
Copyright (c) 2023 Christian Reiner http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Diversity in career orientation at the polytechnic school: Do textbooks take the diversity of students into account?
The polytechnic school (PTS) was established by law in Austria in 1962 in connection with the extension of compulsory schooling to nine years in the education system and started in the school year 1966/67. As a compulsory type of pre-vocational school, it is primarily intended for those students who wish to pursue an apprenticeship, but it is also possible to continue attending a secondary school. The PTS therefore has an important function in terms of vocational and educational orientation. This raises the question of the extent to which stereotypes are reproduced or challenged. As the PTS is characterised by a high degree of cultural diversity in terms of migration background, especially in urban areas, the current question is whether and how this is taken into account. One empirical indicator of this is the representation of young people, their interests and career aspirations in textbooks. In summary, it can be said that the gender debate has been well addressed, while there is still some catching up to do in terms of diversity.
Copyright (c) 2024 Georg Berger https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Competitive Sustainability: A Historical Materialist Analysis of Ideas, Institutions and Power Relations in the European Green Transformation
With the European Green Deal (2019), the green transformation and thus 'competitive sustainability' becomes the focus of the European Union's political-economic strategy. During this, previously established beliefs about the connection between competitiveness and prosperity as well as existing European and global economic structures are being questioned. To enforce particular interests, the power struggles between member states, capital fractions and the EU are consequently focusing on the transformation process. In the context of the green transformation, this article sets out to analyze, firstly, discursive and institutional shifts in relation to competitiveness and, secondly, shifts in power relations in the EU. The analysis comes to two main conclusions: First, at the level of ideas about competitiveness and the institutions in this context, there are continuities with previous European political economic strategies. Second, the transformation process is shaped by a complex interplay of ideas about competitive sustainability and vested interests that ensure selective translation of ideas into EU political-economic strategy.
Copyright (c) 2023 Laura Porak https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0